- Norwegian Embassy in India has announced Norfund and KLP will invest INR 2.8 billion in EGP’s solar plant
- Thar Surya 1 project has 420 MW DC/300 MW AC capacity and is Enel’s maiden solar tender win in India
- Both Norfund and KLP will become 49% stakeholders in the project with this strategic investment
Norway’s largest pension company KLP and the new Norwegian Climate Investment Fund, managed by the country’s development finance institution Norfund have announced around INR 2.8 billion investment in Enel Green Power’s (EGP) 420 MW DC/300 MW AC solar plant in India.
This strategic investment will provide a 49% stake to KLP and Norfund together in the Thar Surya 1 project that’s located in Rajasthan’s Bikaner district. “This is the first investment we are making with Enel, and together we have great ambitions to contribute with similar investments in India in the years to come,” said Norfund CEO Tellef Thorleifsson. The duo had previously entered into a long-term, joint investment partnership to finance, build and operate new renewable energy projects in India in July 2020.
Once online, the power plant is expected to generate more than 750 GWh annually, helping avoid over 615,000 tons of CO2 emissions annually.
Norfund’s Climate Investment Fund is NOK 10 billion ($1 billion) strong and is planned to be invested over next 5 years with ‘India being a priority market’.
“Norway and India are partners in the global energy transition. Through the Climate Investment Fund, managed by Norfund, Norway is delivering on its climate finance commitments while contributing to India’s energy security and clean power supply,” said the Norwegian Ambassador, Hans Jacob Frydenlund.
For Enel, this was its maiden solar tender win in India back in June 2020 under a competitive auction process carried out by the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI). It expects to build the project for $180 million. Over a year back, it raised $50 million financing from the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) for the same project (see India PV News Snippets: EGP, ReNew, SECI, Panasonic).
